Oceanside Terrace Meal at the C Restaurant, part of the IHG Hotel Group, on Cannery Row in Monterey, California by Ruth Paget
My husband Laurent, our daughter Florence Paget, and I went out for a festive fall meal at the C Restaurant on Cannery Row in Monterey, California.
We sat on the oceanside outdoor terrace where all seats are good ones, if you like a cool ocean breeze. (Heaters are available.) We ate a hearty 4-course meal and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves by the bay.
Laurent and Florence began their meal with generous bowls of clam chowder. I ordered my favorite deep-fried calamari that was fried with green beans that resembled tempura and flavored with deep-fried orange slices to give this dish a somewhat sweet flavor. I loved the chipotle-aioli garlic mayonnaise that was pungent and spicy at the same time.
Laurent and Florence ate superlative prawn and Dungeness crab with thick-ribboned pappardelle pasta as their main dish.
I ordered the white corn ravioli stuffed with homemade ricotta cheese that sat on a bed of sautéed Bloomsdale spinach. The ravioli was topped with sautéed chanterelle mushrooms, heirloom cherry tomatoes, and tarragon-butter. That was delicious. I enjoyed every bite of it. (Laurent also let me try some of the superlative seafood pasta, too.)
For our third course, we ordered the Farmhouse Cheese Platter that came with:
-orange mimolette cheese from France
-creamy Brillat Savarin from France
-Iberico Curado from Spain, which resembles manchego
-dried fruit chutney – super sweet
-brown bread crostini baked with dates and chestnuts
Florence ordered the butter-sautéed brioche with ice cream as dessert to share. That was delicious as well.
I love living in a region where I can eat meals like this about 30 minutes sway from my home in Salinas, California.
Thank you Monterey, California for the lovely fall 2026 meal.
Note: When Laurent and I lived in Paris, we would go to oceanside restaurants in Deauville and Honfleur to eat. We would also go Laurent’s paternal grandmother’s house in Sables-d’Olonne on the Atlantic Coast and do the same thing. (All good memories that involved eating lots of raw oysters with sancerre wine.)
Bon Appetit!
By Ruth Paget
-author Eating Soup with Chopsticks, Marrying France, and Europe’s Lessons written during overseas duty in Germany + 5 other Kindle books
-developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games + 8 Classical Western Civilization War Games
-developer of food and beverage knowledge games
-creator of online exhibits about San Miguel Arcangel Mission, French baguette making, and the Carmel Valley History Center
-creator of French travel and culture games
-family genealogist
-developer of 9 music theory games
